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? He is way too negative. He really is not presenting any positive vision, message. There's no way he'll be able to beat Obama with this kind of negativity. He doesn't have the charisma to stand next to Obama. This is going to be disaster for Republicans.

Dear candidate for office,

Stop calling a crowd that they are the 'true' Americans. Anyone with a SSN is a real American. You may not like us all; heck between 40-60% of us seem to always disapprove of the President. But we're all Americans. The blacks, the whites, the urban and rural,the educated and illiterate, the first generation immigrants and the daughters of the American Revolution.

P.S. This also goes when speaking to troops. As a combat veteran, active duty Marine I've had way too many people come before my unit and tell us some line about how we were the 'real' Americans, or 'true' American. Stop it. Please.

~cheers.

I went to a local farmer's market this morning and talked to the people at the Ron Paul booth. I told them how I liked a lot of stuff about Ron Paul but expressed concern over his plans to cut EPA, education, health care, etc.

Their response was that the EPA doesn't work and that "the more we spend on education, the less intelligent we get." These facts happen to be completely made up. Actually, although the EPA is influenced by moneyed corporations, it does do quite a bit to protect the environment. If you go to a poor central-American country you'll see what I mean. Also, we are continually cutting education, so the LESS we spend on education, the less intelligent we become.

Challenging the facts didn't get me anywhere, so I challenged the idea that because something isn't working correctly, it should be removed instead of fixed. This also didn't get me anywhere.

I mentioned the success of the Nordic countries with socialism and quality of life, as well as lack of government corruption. Their response was predictable; those countries are starting to have problems, so obviously what they are doing isn't working, and socialism "can't work." They couldn't provide me with any facts except the ones that they made up.

When talking about healthcare they stated that a universal mandate is unconstitutional, but couldn't name the part of the constitution it goes against. What they eventually came up with was that the Bill of Rights grants "the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Not only is this from the Declaration of Independence, but it's a silly idea that liberty is entirely a right. For example, my liberty to expose myself to young children must be sacrificed for the protection of those children.

My overall impression was that none of the Ron Paul supporters had any facts or evidence to support their ideology. Is their ideology consistent? Yes. Does is present a great ethical argument? Yes. Is there evidence that their ideas about the world are true, and that a small government would function the way they have in mind? Honestly, I don't think so. The most just, equal, even "happy" societies in the world are heavily socialist, and until the Libertarians can put together an argument that uses real evidence for support, and not made-up claims, I think I'll stick to my independent views.

Edit: Hey guys, a huge problem with this country is that we can't have rational political discussions free of rudeness. Why don't we be the change we want to see in the world and talk like gentlemen here?